Plain-English guides to registering, running and staying compliant as a business in India.
An LLP files two forms with the Registrar every year, whatever it earned and even if it did no business at all: Form 11, the annual return, by 30 May, and Form 8, the statement of account and solvency, by 30 October. Both dates assume the usual 31 March year end. Miss either and additional
A late AOC-4 or MGT-7 costs a company in four separate ways, and they stack. First, MCA charges an additional fee for every day of delay on top of the normal filing fee. Second, the Registrar can impose a penalty on the company and its officers under section 137 (financial statements) or section 92 (annual
The form depends on two things: what kind of entity earns the income, and how its business income is worked out. Proprietors file ITR-3, or ITR-4 if they use presumptive taxation. Partnership firms and LLPs file ITR-5, except that a small firm (not an LLP) on presumptive income may use ITR-4. Companies file ITR-6. Trusts
If your company has share capital and was incorporated on or after 2 November 2018, it may not start business or borrow money until a director files Form INC-20A with the Registrar. The form must go in within 180 days of the date on your Certificate of Incorporation. It is a short declaration, but missing
If your business is registered as a regular GST taxpayer and its aggregate turnover for the year was more than ₹2 crore, you file GSTR-9 for that year by 31 December of the following year. Above ₹5 crore, you also attach a self-certified reconciliation statement, GSTR-9C. At ₹2 crore or below, the annual return is
GSTR-1 is your sales statement: invoice by invoice, it tells the system and your buyers what you supplied. GSTR-3B is your tax return: a summary of sales, purchases and credit that works out what you owe and is where you actually pay. Both are filed for the same period, and the GST system now expects
Most small businesses meet GST first as a question: do I have to register yet? The answer turns on four things you can check yourself: what you sell (goods, services or both), which State you supply from, whether any sales cross State lines or go through an online marketplace, and your turnover counted the way
Most changes to a GST registration are made online in Form GST REG-14, within 15 days of the change. A handful of changes, called core fields, need an officer’s approval. The rest take effect as soon as you submit. Two kinds of change cannot be made by amendment at all: a change that gives the
GST touches a small business at five points: deciding whether to register, getting registered, raising invoices, filing returns, and claiming credit on what you buy. Most owners need a working grasp of each, not a tax course. This guide gives you that, and points out where the rules changed in 2025 and 2026. Where a
A freelancer or consultant in India needs GST registration once total income from services in a financial year crosses ₹20 lakh (₹10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura). The figure that surprises people: money from foreign clients counts towards that ₹20 lakh, even though no GST is charged on it. Clients in other Indian
